


Halloween Tears

by V_Prime



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: And They're Here To Eat Your Candy, Happy Ending, Other, Reunion, Sad with a Happy Ending, Short & Sweet, angels are real, really sweet saccharine shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27015739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/V_Prime/pseuds/V_Prime
Summary: As he weaved in and out of traffic, and as the sky began to darken, and the kids started to come out in droves for candy, he found himself wishing once more that he could fulfill that last promise to her.Wished that it wasn’t impossible, that she wasn’t too far away for him to reach now.Wanting to spend just this one holiday with her—her favorite, the one she had wanted to experience the most.The one where she could be anything but the sick, dying angel floating above the Earth.
Kudos: 12





	Halloween Tears

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by [an art piece](https://twitter.com/aimf0324/status/1315679975358394369) done by twitter user [@aimf0324!](https://twitter.com/aimf0324/) I hope you enjoy some happy heart healing times!

Early morning, the day of Halloween, Shadow sat at the kitchen table of the house he shared with Rouge, an untouched cup of coffee steaming under his steepled fingers. He was merely staring at the wood grain, as though it had hypnotized him. 

“Shadow, you _can’t_ just do nothing all _day_ ,” Rouge complained. “Come on, we got _you_ a costume, too!” She fluttered towards the table, holding up a vampire outfit. “I thought you’d be a _very_ dashing Dracula.” 

“I’ll hand out candy again this year,” he said, telling her no without actually saying the word. It was easier that way. “Have fun with the group.” His head never moved, though he stared at the coffee instead, like it could give him what he wanted. 

He felt a soft, friendly hand squeeze his shoulder as Rouge wrapped around to give him a hug. “Shadow… she would have _wanted_ you to live your life. _That_ means coming with us _instead_ of being an old fogey here.”

“Halloween was her favorite,” Shadow said, and Rouge knew he was talking about the same person she was—Maria. This was the first time he’d ever given details of why he was insistent on staying home while his friends went out to party and have fun, so Rouge sat down at the table to listen, keeping her mouth shut in case he stopped talking. “She was stuck on the ARK— _We_ were stuck on the ARK,” he amended. “So she never got to trick-or-treat. I promised her that our first time trick-or-treating would be together.” 

The unspoken ending was clear, though: Maria had never gotten to go trick-or-treating; she had been brutally killed in front of Shadow—something Rouge knew had left such an impact on him that sometimes, she was afraid her friend and coworker was on the edge of snapping. Close to leaving them all behind and finding some distant planet to isolate on, and they would never see him again.

“You _can_ go now,” Rouge said gently. 

“Yes,” Shadow agreed. “But she can’t.” 

Those were two different things to Rouge, but she tried to see it from his point of view. She knew Shadow best, after all. He didn’t want to go trick-or-treating, or party on Halloween, but for why? He had promised Maria— 

And that was it, wasn’t it? Shadow refused to break a promise. It was one of the things she loved about her friend, that no matter how prickly of an asshole he could be, he was reliable and kind where it counted. The poor thing had trapped himself in an impossible-to-fulfil promise, and Rouge said as much. “That’s not very fair to you, but…” She stood up to wrap him in a hug from behind again. “I understand. At the _very_ least, do something _nice_ for yourself today. Okay?” 

“Okay.” Shadow stared at his cold coffee, and even through the black feelings he felt in his chest, he felt relief beneath it, that Rouge had understood his pain, and let him have it all to himself. It was no less than he deserved, not only for breaking his promise, but because he hadn’t been able to save the only person he truly cared about. This was his penance.

Rouge left, but not before draping the Dracula costume on the back of her vacated chair; she was surely going to meet her boyfriend Knuckles (and the rest of their friends) somewhere, and they would party and beg people for candy, and Shadow would be here all alone handing out candy to all the kids who paraded up to his door. Some of them would remind him of Maria, and he’d give them extra candy. That was the routine. 

He sighed and scooted his chair back, standing up, then grabbed his ice cold cup of coffee to dump it down the sink and leave the kitchen. He’d take a ride through town, then buy some overpriced candy for the kids he’d see tonight. That was the routine, he thought to himself as he zipped up the skid-proof jacket and slammed the helmet on his head. 

Geared up, he opened the garage and straddled his bike, put the key in the ignition, then pulled the choke before turning it on. After squeezing the clutch, he pushed the button to start the motorcycle and it snarled to life. While he waited for the motor to turn over, he contemplated for the thousandth time, what could he have done better? He was certain she could have lived, had he just done what he was made to do—protect her. 

Releasing the starter, he pushed the choke and then sped out of the garage, hitting the button to close it behind him. He wasn’t crying, exactly, but his helmet was fogging up dangerously. _Stupid. Dangerous,_ he thought to himself. The last thing he needed was to crash—but only because innocent lives would be put in danger. It’s not like he wouldn’t walk away from it. Crashing a bike wasn’t likely to kill him.

He’d already tried that. 

Shadow sped through roads, hitting the familiar path to a candy store. He quietly paid for a few bags of the good shit, the candy bars he knew the kids went wild for before hopping back on his bike to ride until nightfall.

As he weaved in and out of traffic, and as the sky began to darken and the kids started to come out in droves, he found himself wishing once more that he could fulfill this last promise to her. Wished that it wasn’t an impossibility, that she wasn’t too far away for him to reach now. Wanting to spend just this one holiday with her—her favorite, the one she wanted to experience the most. The one where she could be anything but the sick, dying angel floating above the Earth. 

As he turned around to go home, his mind registered the threat before his eyes did, and he’d already begun to beeline towards the road that looked like it was made of clouds. It was abnormal, and abnormal usually meant danger. He half-expected to go right through it, but his bike scaled it as easily as it would a hill, and he went up and up until he had to skid to a stop at what looked like a solid wall of clouds. 

It was cold and windy up here, and eerily silent. Shadow’s nerves felt shot, screaming, expecting danger to jump out at him. As though to prepare, he jumped off the bike, ripped off his helmet, and began to cautiously walk around this huge platform he found himself on. At the sound of displaced wind behind him, Shadow whirled around to catch light and wind forming a humanoid shape. He readied himself for a fight, but as it solidified, he found himself dropping to his knees and staring at it. 

“... Maria?” He asked, afraid that he was going insane with grief at this point. Riding into clouds, trying to fight wind. But she looked so solidly there, in a blue poofy dress with a peter pan collar and slip-on shoes; on her back seemed to be fake white wings, and atop her blond head perched a cardboard halo painted gold, glued to the hairband she wore to keep her hair out of her face. 

Shadow had never seen her look more alive than right now, with that smile lighting up her face. The dark circles under her eyes were gone, the track marks from the shots were gone. She was perfect, and beautiful, and Shadow found himself crying for the first time since she had died, so long ago. He didn’t even raise his arms to wipe them away, even as she skipped forwards to wrap her arms around him in a hug. 

“Shadow! I’m so glad to see you again,” she gripped him tightly, more tight than she could have ever done while alive. Not without hurting herself. She _felt_ solid, and Shadow tentatively wrapped his arms around her waist to hug her back. “They said we could go trick-or-treating! And I made my own costume, all by myself!” She puffed out her chest, proudly showing off her wings and halo. 

He didn’t care who “They” was, he didn’t care how this was even possible. He’d seen ghosts, he’d seen wisps, he’d seen all kinds of strange and weird things happen—why should he question such a blessing? “Then we should go trick-or-treating,” Shadow said quietly. “I would hate to waste your costume, it looks like you worked really hard on it.” His cheek was pressed into her dress, and he marveled at how warm she could feel, when his last memory of her was the cold and sick little girl who never stood a chance. 

Maria helped him stand up, before skipping over to the bike, humming and waiting for him to catch up. She’d always been an optimist, even as she got weaker and weaker, but now she seemed so happy and carefree. Past optimism, and straight on to being truly happy. He didn’t even envy her happiness like he had envied her optimism—all he’d ever wanted was for her to be happy.

He picked up his bike helmet and wordlessly held it out to her, but she refused it. “I don’t need it!” Maria told him. “If you got hurt, I would be so sad,” 

Though Shadow was ready to argue, it hit him that she was already dead. She was right, she didn’t need it, so instead of fighting her on it he put it on his own head and straddled the bike once more. “Let’s go back to my place and I’ll put on a costume. Then we’ll go. Hop on, and hold on tight.” 

“I promise I will!” She climbed on the bike behind him and wrapped her arms around his chest, holding him tightly, just like she promised. It made him start crying again, fogging up the lens of his helmet. “I’ve never been on a motorcycle before. You’re so cool, Shadow!” 

“I’m only cool because of you,” he told her, and it was the truth; his life had been shaped by Maria—she was the reason he was created, and her death was the reason he had lived. He started the motorcycle again and turned to speed down from the clouds, back to his house as dusk fell on them. 

When he pulled up to the house, he hit the button to open the garage, then pulled inside next to Rouge’s car. Shadow hopped off the bike and Maria giggled and jumped off the bike, into his arms. He would have dropped her had his reflexes not been as quick as they were, but he caught her and she wrapped her arms around his neck while he carried her and the candy into the house. “I need to get my costume on and put a bowl of candy out,” he told her, letting her down in the kitchen. He grabbed the costume and gave Maria an uncertain look, like she would disappear the moment he took his eyes off her, but she waved goodbye at him and he left to change. 

Rouge had gotten him a cape, fake demon wings, and a little top hat with horns—all of them black and red, to match his own quills. When he was dressed, he flipped the porch light on and poured all the candy in a big bowl, then set it outside on a chair for the kids to take what they wanted. Finally, he went back to Maria in the kitchen. “How’s my costume?” he asked her—though he had nothing else to change into, if she hated it, but of course she didn’t hate it. 

“You look amazing!” She squealed. “We’re gonna get so much candy!” 

“Only if we get going right now,” he told her, taking her hand. He scrounged up two buckets—a fake blue pumpkin for her, and his own motorcycle helmet for himself. The neck strap was a good enough handle, anyway. 

He watched her skipping, dancing in the autumn leaves, and even jumping into leaf piles that the neighbors left for the kids, and Shadow had never felt so happy as he did right now—able to replace the old, sick and dying memories of her with new, happy and healthy ones. She didn’t have to be the sick little girl on the ARK anymore. She could have one normal night, and they could both remember this. 

She pranced up to every house with a skip in her step, while Shadow hovered protectively behind her; it was her who yelled trick-or-treat at whoever opened the door, and they received compliments on their costumes while the adults dropped candy in their buckets. The adults treated him like a kid, but he wouldn’t ruin the fun by pointing it out this time—and it was more candy he could give to Maria at the end of the night anyway. 

Door to door they went, until lights began to flicker out in the houses and their buckets were full of candy. Though he didn’t like chocolate or candy that much himself, him and Maria sat at the kitchen table trading candy, because she wanted to, and he traded for anything she asked for, because he wanted to. He even started getting into it and brokering “deals” to give her candy she liked, in trade for candy he knew she didn’t want like Lemonheads and Smarties. She beamed with a devilish grin, thinking she was getting away with something, and he wasn’t about to pop her bubble. 

After they traded, they gorged themselves on chocolate and sugar, leaving wrappers all over the table that Shadow knew he’d have to clean up later, but for now, he was happy and content to make a mess with her, make silly faces at her that she returned in kind, and tell her some of the really groan-worthy jokes he knew she loved. She’d missed out on fifty years of them, after all, so he just had to catch her up. 

After that, they moved to the living room and Shadow put on a movie—one of the fancy new animated films that were as different from the black-and-white tapes she’d been relegated to on the ARK. He didn’t care for them, but watching her sit on the edge of her seat and gasp, thrilled at all the bright colors, was something he thought he could watch for years and never get bored of it. She was so excited that he almost felt excited too. 

When that movie was over, another one came on, and she rested her head in his lap while she yawned. “Thank you for taking me trick-or-treating, Shadow,” she said in a sleepy voice. “This was the best Halloween ever, thanks to you.” 

He was getting choked up again, and he didn’t think he’d be able to speak; Shadow finally managed to say “You’re welcome, Maria. This was the best Halloween I’ve ever had too.” Her cardboard halo had turned more golden than it was before, and her wings seemed to be made of real feathers now as she fell asleep watching the animated movie on TV. Shadow leaned his head back and shut his eyes, not wanting to see the moment when she disappeared. 

It must have been hours later when Rouge woke him up. “Shadow! _I_ pegged you for an _action_ movie kind of guy, not princess movies.” Her hand was on her hip, but she was beaming at him. “You wore your costume, too! Did you dress up for the kiddos? How _cute_ ,” 

“Something like that.” Shadow stood up and cracked his back, then stretched. “What time is it?” 

“Midnight. You left a _real_ mess in the kitchen! Did you have a friend come over and eat all the candy? You know that was supposed to be for the kids, right?” Rouge started to straighten up his wrinkled costume, then looked at the couch where he had been sitting. There was a single white feather there, and she reached out to pick it up and tickle his nose with it. 

He took it from her, wiping his nose to get rid of the tickled feeling, then stared at the fluffy white feather he held in his hand now. This feather was proof that it wasn’t a dream. Shadow hadn’t imagined it—for one beautiful night, Maria had been here. Whole, healthy, and happy. Shadow found that his eyes were welling up with tears once more, and he threw his arms around Rouge’s shoulders. “No, I went trick-or-treating with Maria.”

If she thought that was weird, she didn’t comment. Instead, her wings fluttered—a sign she was excited—as she hugged him back, holding him much tighter than he’d hugged her. “That’s _wonderful_ , Shadow. Maybe next year you can trick-or-treat with _us_ , hmm?”

“Yeah, maybe.” He slipped the feather into the pocket of his cape when he pulled out of the hug. Now that he’d fulfilled his promise to Maria, he felt lighter—free to go in memory of her, instead of going without her. 

Some people might think they were the same thing since she was dead, but to Shadow, it made all the difference in the world.


End file.
